"Search" searches *headers*. It's seriously underpowered. If you have 300 notes, what use are they if they are not full-text-searchable...? The functionality exists elsewhere (and has been in that orphaned Appigo "Notebook" app for years!): it's time to improve the search in the Toodledo iPhone app as well...

I know that having the saved custom searches appear on the iphone app seems to be 'on the development list', but it has appeared 'on the list' for a couple of years. Is there any real hope of getting it Toodledo? This is a major strength of Toodledo and makes the iphone app almost useless to me.
Do any of the 3rd party apps allow access to the Toodledo saved searches?

I agree with you completely. Not having saved searches makes it almost useless. Unfortunatetely, as far as I know, no third party app has this either.

If you are a GTD person you could try one of the GTD apps instead. Since they have a whole different menu structure from the very outset, you tend to rely less on saved searches (smart lists) - you get a useful menu setup straight out-of-the-box. And since these GTD menus are obvioulsy part of their entire "system" they are also available in their slim and iPhone versions as well. The drawback with these other apps, though, e.g. Nirvana, is that they are generally less "mature" and tweakable than Toodledo.

A reflection:
I also depend entirely on saved searches. My whole system is built upon saved searches. But when you read this thread it becomes obvious that some people do not even know what they are, and have not discovered their power. They start confusing saved searches with normal ad-hoc searches, i.e. searching for some perhaps misplaced task that has a particular text string in it etc. That kind of search is also very useful, but it is a totally different thing than saved searches. In other systems the "saved searches" generally are more aptly called smart lists, smart views, custom views etc., as they are, in reality and intended use, an alternative and complement to all the built-in views in the standard menu. I have suggested that the saved searches in Toodledo be renamed custom views, to make their power more obvious to new users. I have also suggested that the main menu be user configurable such that these custom views, that the user depends on, can be put first in the menu. This is particularly important in the slim and iPhone versions.

That's good news! While I have TD on my iPhone, I basically only use it when I think of a work-related task and I add it and I'm away from my desk. It would be far more useful if I could have my Saved Searches, because that's where I "live" at work.